Worldview Analysis

🕑 6 min.

The following are a number of good things to keep in mind. These will be particularly helpful in the context of the Apologetics and Mars Hill events, but they are also of general utility when developing and analyzing arguments in any context.

The Bible

Our worldview is based on the truth revealed in the Bible. A natural question that arises when pointing to the authority of scripture is, “Why should I believe the Bible?” The answer is, “I choose to believe the Bible because it is

  1. a reliable collection of historical documents

  2. written down by eyewitnesses

  3. during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses;

  4. they report supernatural events

  5. that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies

  6. and claim that their writings are divine rather than human in origin.”

For details supporting this statement, see here.

The Law

What God requires of man is summed up in the ten commandments:

Love God

Love Others

  1. Have no other gods.

  1. Honor your parents.

  1. Have no idols.

  1. Do not murder.

  1. Do not profane the Lord’s name.

  1. Do not commit adultery.

  1. Remember the Sabbath.

  1. Do not steal.

  1. Do not bear false witness.

  1. Do not covet.

Catechism

Apologetics isn’t about knowing what everyone else believes better than them, such that you can point out the inconsistencies in their beliefs; rather, it’s about knowing what you believe such that you can spot something that doesn’t line up with it. The best tool for building these foundational beliefs is catechism, which is a series of questions and answers used for instruction. A resource we recommend is A Catechism for Boys and Girls. Tackling a single, brief question and answer per day, you can have all the doctrines of the Christian faith memorized in a few months.

Note

Keep in mind that such extra-biblical resources, though helpful, are not inerrant like the Bible itself is.

The Four Fundamental Questions

There are four fundamental questions that people wrestle with:

  1. Who am I?

  2. Why am I here?

  3. What is wrong with the world?

  4. How can what is wrong be made right?

Everyone has an answer to these questions, whether or not they’ve thought through them intentionally. The biblical worldview answers these questions as follows:

  1. I am an individual (Psalm 139:13) made in the image of God, the crowning glory of his creation (Genesis 1:26–31).

  2. I am here to glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31) and enjoy him forever (Psalm 144:15).

  3. The problem with the world is I don’t do what I was created to do (Leviticus 5:17; James 4:17).

  4. To address the problem, I can surrender my life to the lordship of Christ (Romans 10:9) and allow God to transform me more and more each day into his likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18). Ultimately Christ will return to judge the world and make all things right again (Matthew 25:31–46; Revelation 21:1–8).

A non-biblical worldview will have different answers to one or more of these questions.

The Historical Meta-Narrative

History tells a story, the main components of which are:

  1. Creation

  2. Fall

  3. Redemption

  4. Consumation

The biblical worldview tells us:

  1. God created all things, both seen and unseen (Colossians 1:16), created man and woman in his image as the crowning glory of his creation, and deemed it all very good (Genesis 1:26–31).

  2. Mankind ruined our perfect relationship with our creator by sinning against him (Genesis 3:6–8). This fall from grace forever impacted God’s perfect creation (Romans 5:12–21; Romans 8:18–22).

  3. After promising redemption for millennia (Genesis 3:15; Deuteronomy 18:15), God sent his son Jesus (Galatians 4:4) to become fully human (John 1:14), to live a perfect, sinless life (Hebrews 4:15), to die a substitutionary death on the cross in our place (2 Corinthians 5:21), that his righteousness might be credited to us (Romans 4:20–25) and we might be reconciled to God (Colossians 1:19–20) through faith in him (Ephesians 2:8–9).

  4. God has appointed a day for Christ to come again to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42) and make all things right (2 Peter 3:10–13).

A non-biblical worldview will address the same four areas of the historical meta-narrative, but there will be differences in one or more of the stages.

Note

The historical meta-narrative and the four fundamental questions line up as follows: Who am I and why am I here? Creation. What’s wrong with the world? Fall. How can what’s wrong be made right? Redemption and consummation.

The Five-Fold Breakdown

Your worldview is your lens through which you see the world. There’s nothing in your life that isn’t impacted by it. People tend to break it down in different ways, but one way that’s helpful to remember is your worldview consists of of your views on:

  1. God

  2. Man

  3. Truth

  4. Knowledge

  5. Ethics

The biblical worldview specifies:

  1. There is only one true God (Deuteronomy 6:4), eternally existent in the three persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).

  2. God made man in his image as the crowning glory of his creation (Genesis 1:26–31), and gave us the responsibility to exercise dominion over his created order (Genesis 2:15).

  3. Truth is absolute and unchanging (Psalm 119:160), having its source in God himself (John 14:6).

  4. We can know truth through what God revealed to man in the special revelation of the Bible (John 17:17), as well as in the general revelation of his creation (logic, math, science) (Romans 1:20; Psalm 19:1–4; Romans 2:14–15).

  5. Ethics are absolute and are based on the unchanging word and will of God (Exodus 20:1–17; Matthew 5:17–18).

A non-biblical worldview can be broken down into the same five categories, but will differ in what it specifies for one or more of them.

For a breakdown of the various ways we can know truth (#4), see here.

Apologetics

When it comes to defending your faith, you don’t need to study the answers to thousands of possible questions. Rather, all the questions you might run into fall into a small handful of categories, so you just need to be prepared to speak about those. There’s even a fun acronym to remember: TASER.

Theology

What we believe about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

Anthropology

What we believe about mankind.

Soteriology

What we believe about salvation.

Ethics

What we believe about right behavior, or what’s required of us.

Revelation

What we believe about how God has revealed truth to us.

Additionally, questions can be classified as either:

Doctrinal

Having to do with what exactly we believe. Basically, what does the Bible say about a topic? These are often easier to answer, and Catechism can help you prepare for them.

Application

Having to do with putting beliefs into practice. These require more effort, as they often involve pulling together multiple doctrinal elements and then using logic to apply them to particular situations.